Twice now, Bush has removed the prosecutor in the Abramoff case. Twice!From the LA Times, Aug 8, 2005 via Bellaciao:WASHINGTON — A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.SF Chronicle, Jan 27, 2006:The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush. How can Bush remove Abramoff’s prosecutor twice and get away with it?... http://benfrank.net

Oh no, not more democracy again! Didn't we award this to those Algerians in 1990? And didn't they reward us with that nice gift of an Islamist government - and then they so benevolently cancelled the second round of elections? Thank goodness for that!True, the Afghans elected a round of representatives, albeit that they included some warlords and murderers. But then the Iraqis last year elected the Dawa party to power in Baghdad, which was responsible - let us not speak this in Washington - for most of the kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut in the 1980s, the car bombing of the (late) Emir and the US and French embassies in Kuwait.And now, horror of horrors, the Palestinians have elected the wrong party to power. They were supposed to have given their support to the friendly, pro-Western, corrupt, absolutely pro-American Fatah, which had promised to "control" them, rather than to Hamas, which said they would represent them. And, bingo, they have chosen the wrong party again....http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11694.htm

Russian officers must face punishment over the case of a young conscript who was beaten so badly that his legs and genitals had to be amputated, the soldier's sister demanded on Saturday. She spoke as demonstrators in Moscow angrily called for the dismissal of Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov after the brutal bullying incident in which the victim's suffering was made worse because medical treatment was delayed. Andrei Sychev, 19, was tied up and beaten for hours by drunken soldiers over the New Year holiday at a tank academy in Chelyabinsk, in the Ural mountains. Ivanov said Moscow wasn't told about the attack for 25 days and sought to stem outrage by dismissing the general in charge of the tank academy, Russian state television reported. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1552137

In a tragic case of mistaken identity, police shot and critically wounded an off-duty officer as he pointed a gun at a suspect outside a fast food restaurant early Saturday, authorities said. Eric Hernandez, 25, was hit three times and was hospitalized in extremely critical condition, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The officer who pulled the trigger, identified only as a 20-year veteran of the force, was being treated for trauma at another hospital. Hernandez had been in line at a White Castle restaurant in the Bronx shortly before 5 a.m. when he was assaulted by a half-dozen men, Bloomberg said. It wasn't immediately clear what sparked the fight, but it was captured on the restaurant's security camera. A White Castle employee called 911, and Hernandez with his gun drawn ran into the parking lot after his assailants, Bloomberg said. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1552162&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Six years after instituting a policy of nationalizing white-owned farms and evicting their owners, Zimbabwe's government has begun to seize white-owned land in urban Harare. Some 200 workers were rounded up by police and forced out of their homes last week. The workers lived and were employed on Gletwyn, a large property in the midst of several wealthy suburbs, 14 kilometers east of the city center. Many of them had lived there all their lives. Gletwyn is an old farm, incorporated into the city of Harare in 1996. The owners, two brothers, planned to subdivide the land into a new suburb, but would continue to grow specialist crops, such as corn seed. Police arrived before Christmas and said they were going to build houses for themselves on Gletwyn. Ian Ross, 68, said the police started harassing and evicting hundreds of workers from their homes. "They arrived to evict the workers, which they did piece by piece, village by village, compound by compound. ...http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=13674

World trade negotiations are back on track after officials meeting in Davos agreed a new timetable to achieve an agreement this year. The "work programme" outlines a precise timetable for 33 contentious subjects from agriculture to aid for trade. The breakthrough was a deal to move on all key issues agriculture, services and manufacturing at the same time. The US trade representative said there was now "an unparalleled opportunity to boost the global economy". This would lift millions out of poverty, said Robert Portman. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson spoke of a "better mood" at the negotiating table. They were speaking after an informal meeting of trade officials from about 25 nations on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. In the run-up to Sat agreement trade officials from the EU, US and developing nations had engaged in a furious series of briefings blaming each other for stalling the talks by demanding that the issues closest to their interests be resolved first...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4657136.stm